Police secure Pampanga’s Golgotha

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Residents of Barangay San Pedro Cutud here are girding for their annual Good Friday Via Crucis re-enacting the sufferings of Jesus Christ which Christians believe were meant to save mankind. This time though, dogs will play a significant role in the crowd-drawing Lenten tradition.

Senior Superintendent Nicanor Targa, city police chief, told The STAR that bomb-sniffing dogs will be deployed in San Pedro Cutud to secure the locals and tourists witnessing the Via Crucis which culminates with the actual nailing to wooden crosses of several Kristos in the village’s version of Golgotha (the site where Jesus Christ was crucified) on Good Friday.

"We are not taking any chances. We are enforcing maximum security measures," Targa said.

This, amid warnings by Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao that threats from the regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah are "very serious."

As early as last week, foreign journalists and tourists have begun flocking here for the Via Crucis. To accommodate them, Mayor Oscar Rodriguez said some residents are renting out rooms in their homes since local inns and hotels cannot handle them.

Barangay San Pedro Cutud first staged the Via Crucis highlighted by actual "crucifixions" over 50 years ago. For the first time, the city government is now openly supporting the religious tradition which some Catholic Church officials have frowned upon as "unnecessary."

"Personally, I don’t go for the bloody practice, but since it’s already there, we will help make the affair orderly, peaceful and convenient as possible for our guests," Rodriguez told reporters at City Hall whose facade displays a huge streamer marked "Kalbaryo 2005."

The city government, he said, has provided the Via Crucis participants with new costumes.

In handouts, the city tourism office said there are only a limited number of rooms in local inns for tourists staying in San Pedro Cutud during the Holy Week.

"For a minimum fee, tourists will be treated to Fernandino hospitality in (the) homes (of local folk) and have a chance to interact with the devotees, penitents... and their families," the handouts state.

As of last Saturday, eight penitents had signified their intention to be nailed to wooden crosses.

"We expect the number to reach 14 as the deadline is still on Wednesday," said Allan Navarro, director of this year’s Via Crucis. He is a grandson of Ricardo Navarro, who first directed the Good Friday street play in 1955.

Navarro said resident Ruben Enaje, who has been nailed to a cross several times supposedly to fulfill a religious vow, will again be the main Kristo.

He said stainless nails, each two-and-a-half inches long, used in past "crucifixions," are now immersed in alcohol for reuse in this year’s Via Crucis.

City tourism officer Fer Santos said the street play was written in Capampangan by Ricardo Navarro in 1955 and has since been performed yearly by locals who have had no formal training in acting.

The Via Crucis has become a community activity that has survived many hurdles in the past 50 years. For three years, the annual tradition was not staged when San Pedro Cutud was buried by lahar flows in 1995.

For some residents, the calamity was a retribution for the Good Friday fiesta in their village which actually marks the feast of St. Peter, its patron saint, in June. On a supposed day of abstinence, locals serve meat dishes typical of a fiesta celebration.